MISSISSIPPI 




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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 

1891. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
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Copyright, 1891, by J. B. Lippincott Company. 




JOURNEY THROUGH TEXAS 



SADDLE-TRIP ON THE SOUTHWESTERN FRONTIER: 



STATISTICAL APPENDIX. 



BY 

FEEDERICK LAW OLMSTETv 

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AUTHOR OF " A JOURNEY IN THE SEABOARD SLAVE STATES," 
"walks and TALKS OF AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND," ETC., ETC 



NEW YOKK: 
MASON BROTHERS, 

108 & 110 DUANE STREET. 
18 5 9. 



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Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

F. L. OLMSTED, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 






MISSISSIPPI. 



Mississippi, one of the Gulf States of the American 
Union, lies west of Alabama and south of western 
Tennessee, and is bounded on the W. by the Missis- 
sippi River. Length, north to south, 335 miles; width, 
150 miles. Area, 46,810 sq. m. The surface, except 
in the Yazoo delta, is generally hilly, though nowhere 
mountainous, the highest hills being only 800 feet 
above the sea-level. There are three distinct water- 
sheds ; the eastern counties are drained by the Tom- 
bigbee and its tributaries ; the Pearl, Pascagoula, and 
Escatawpa with their affluents drain the central and 
south-eastern portion; and the Homochitto, Big 
Black, and Yazoo carry the water of the western and 
northern counties into the Mississippi. The Orange- 
sand formation (Post-Tertiary, 40 to 60 and even 200 
feet thick) characterises the greater portion of the 
surface of the state, and forms the main body of the 
hills and ridges. It is usually coloured with hydrated 
peroxide of iron, or yellow ochre, and presents an 
endless variety of tints. Ferruginous sandstones, 
capping the tops of hills and thereby preventing denu- 
dation, are found in all sections covered by the Orange- 



A MISSISSIPPI. 

sand formation. Gravel beds also abound, as well as 
beds of pipeclay, and of ochreous clays used for paints ; 
and there are also vast beds of lignite of excellent 
quality, and marls which are used as ingredients of 
commercial fertilisers. There are mineral springs in 
different portions of the state. 

Mississippi is essentially an agricultural state. The 
north-eastern prairie region, 70 miles long and from 
15 to 20 wide, with its fertile, black, calcareous soil, 
contains much of the best farming and grazing land 
in the state. There are no springs here, but cisterns 
dug in the rotten limestone, bored wells, and artesian 
wells furnish ample water. In the north the bottom 
lands along the numerous creeks and rivers especially 
are well adapted to agriculture; while in the central 
portion stock-raising is carried on, and in the yellow- 
pine region large herds of sheep are raised. The 
yellow pine ranks first among the forest trees of Mis- 
sissippi ; it extends northward from the coast for 150 
miles. The Yazoo Delta, embracing the elliptical area 
of alluvial bottoms between the Mississippi and Yazoo 
rivers, extending from Vicksburg to the state line on 
the north, has until within recent years been subject 
to inundations; but levees now protect the lands, and 
the rise in the Mississippi in 1890 — the highest and 
most prolonged ever known — left the levees unbroken 
except in four places which together were less than a 
mile in extent. Less than 15 per cent, of the delta 
was overflowed. The delta's drainage flows into lakes, 
small but numerous, which form the head-waters of 
other bayous, and through them after miles of mean- 
dering find outlets into the Yazoo and other streams. 



MISSISSIPPI. 5 

The delta contains 41^ millions of acres of alluvial 
land, only 500,000 acres of which are under cultiva- 
tion. Virgin forests of hardwoods cover the rest. 
For the state, the annual production of cotton is 
about 900,000 bales, of corn 28,000,000 bushels, and 
of oats 4,000,000 bushels. The fruits and vegetables 
shipped in 1890 were valued at ;^ 1, 000,000. This 
industry flourishes in the central and southern por- 
tions. 

The winters in Mississippi are short and mild, the 
mean temperature 45° F. ; the summers are devoid 
of intense heat, the mean 81°, seldom reaching 100°. 
Ice from one to two inches thick forms in the northern 
part of the state. The elevation of the surface and 
the Gulf breezes render the climate delightful during 
most of the year. The annual rainfall ranges from 
48 to 58 inches. The death-rate is very low — 12*9 
in 1000. 

Mississippi sends seven representatives to congress. 
The state legislature is composed of 145 representa- 
tives and 45 senators, elected quadrennially. There 
are three supreme judges, appointed for nine years by 
the governor, and circuit and chancery judges, ap- 
pointed for four years. The public schools are main- 
tained four months annually by the state, but forty 
towns and cities maintain graded schools for ten 
months a year. Separate schools are maintained for 
the coloured race. There are enrolled 148,435 white 
and 173,552 coloured children: average daily attend- 
ance — white, 90,716; coloured, 101,710. The state 
supports the university at Oxford (1844), agricultural 
and mechanical college at Starkville (1878), industrial 



5 MISSISSIPPI. 

institute and college at Columbus (1844; ^o^ white 
girls), a college for coloured youth at Rodney, and a 
normal school at Holly Springs, for training coloured 
teachers. There are also private universities and col- 
leges, for both white and coloured youth, besides 155 
high schools and academies. Institutions for the deaf 
and dumb (icx)) and the bhnd (50) are at Jackson, the 
capital ; there also are the state penitentiary (500) and 
the lunatic asylum (550). 

History, — Mississippi was first settled by the French, 
and constituted a part of Louisiana. Iberville planted 
the first colony at Biloxi in 1699. It was ceded to 
Great Britain in 1763 ; was admitted into the Union 
as a state, December 10, 18 17; seceded January 9, 
1 86 1 (principal battles during the civil war, Corinth, 
Baker's Creek, Holly Spring, luka, siege of Vicks- 
burg); was readmitted into the Union, 1869. In 1890 
there were 2475 miles of railway in the state. Vicks- 
burg, Greenville, and Natchez are principal ports on 
the Mississippi River, and Pascagoula and Biloxi on 
the Gulf Cotton-factories are located at Wesson 
(value 3 millions), Columbus, Natchez, Enterprise, 
Meridian, Water Valley, Carrollton, and Corinth; 
wood-factories at Jackson and Meridian. Pop. (1820) 
75,448; (1850) 605,948; (1880) 1,131,597; (1890) 
1,289,600. 



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